"Some approved of the Working Group’s proposal. Some thought that there should be a higher limit. Some thought that there should be a limit not on the damages or profits claimed, but on the value of the claim as a whole e.g. by reference to the annual sales, or projected sales, of products protected by the IP right (i.e. total sales made by the right owner, its licensee and/or the alleged infringer). Some thought that there should no limit."

Although there was no official limit to the value of a claim that could be brought in the Patents County Court, Judge Birss QC certainly took the value of the claim into account when he transferred Alk-Abello v Meridian Medical [2010] EWPCC 14 to the High Court on 9 Nov 2010 (see my case note of 9 Nov 2010).

"In relation to all proceedings within the special jurisdiction of a patents county court and in which a claim is made for damages or an account of profits, the amount or value of that claim shall not exceed £500,000."

Art 2 (2) excludes from the value of the claim interest other than that payable under an agreement and costs.

There are also to be transitional measures in art 3 to cover claims that exceed that amount brought or transferred before these rules come into force. That date is likely to be 14 June 2011.

Anyone who wants to discuss this draft statutory instrument or intellectual property litigation generally can call me on 0800 862 0055 or through my contact form.

This was an appeal by the National Guild of Removers & Storers ("NGRS") against an award of £1,275 damages in its favour by District Judge Vary for passing off. By dismissing that appeal, His Honour Judge Hacon seems to have settled a 7 year controversy as to what should be the correct measure of damages for what is often an inadvertent misrepresentation of continued membership of the NGRS by a removal or storage business that no longer wishes to remain a member of that guild.

In Caspian Pizza Ltd and Others v Shah and Another [2015] EWHC 3567 (IPEC) (9 Dec 2015) Judge Hacon dismissed a claim for trade mark infringement and passing off. The trade marks relied upon were the device mark that appears above and the word mark CASPIAN. The judge declared the word mark invalid because the defendants had run a restaurant called "CASPIAN" in another part of the country which constituted an "earlier right" within the meaning of s.5 (4) of the Trade Marks Act 1994. However, he did not declare the device mark invalid on the ground that the defendants had no goodwill in the running chef logo. I blogged about the case in Caspian Pizza Ltd and Others v Shah and Anotheron 24 Jan 2016.

The claimants appealed to the Court of Appeal against the invalidation of the word mark on the grou…